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The End is Near: Governor Has until Midnight Sunday to Sign Key Measures

Gov. Jerry Brown has until the stroke of midnight on October 13 to sign the dozens of bills sent to him during the last weeks of the legislative session.

Our members are particularly interested in the fate of a number of the CTA-position bills that are among those.

They have been contacting the governor via our Contact Your Lawmaker link that allows them to write him quickly from the CTA.org asking him to sign bills including:

AB 729 (Hernandez). It would protect the confidentiality of communications between union members and their grievance representatives. It would ensure our members can share information with their representatives without fear that the union personnel can be compelled to reveal the information shared in confidence.

SB 368 (Pavley). It would allow Special Education teachers to use prior training and experience to help qualify them for add-on authorizations. The measure would help save educators time and money by not having them repeat training they have already completed or learn skills they have already mastered.

At the same time, our members have been urging the governor to veto AB 955 (Williams). This measure would harm middle and lower-economic class students by boosting the cost of intercession courses at the community colleges by more than 300 percent.

It would allow only those students who can afford to pay the exorbitant fees to attend courses offered at that time. This two-tiered pricing runs counter to the concept behind the community colleges – that they should open the doors to higher education regardless of students’ fiscal standing.

The real solution to the course offering shortage is to use increasing state revenues to restore billions of dollars in cuts made over the past years to the community colleges.